The financial services sector contributed £71.4 billion in tax last year, highlighting the potential hit to UK government coffers if Brexit results in restricted access to the EU’s single market. A report by the City of London Corporation and accountancy giant PwC shows that nearly a quarter of financial services’ turnover in the last financial year “went straight to the public coffers,” and accounted for 11.5 per cent of the UK’s total tax receipts for the 12 months to March. That marks the sector’s highest tax total in the report’s nine-year history.

Bargain-hungry shoppers bolstered retail takings last month, with non-food sales jumping 40 per cent during the week including Black Friday. The latest survey from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and KPMG showed like-for-like sales rose 0.6 per cent in November, compared with a 0.4 per cent fall a year earlier, as the shopping extravaganza on 25 November provided a boost to stores. Total sales, which include new selling space, climbed by 1.3 per cent, up from a 0.7 per cent rise in November last year.

Iomart, the Glasgow-based cloud computing and web hosting specialist, said its profits jumped by almost a quarter during the first half of its financial year. The Aim-quoted firm posted an adjusted pre-tax profit of £10.6 million for the six months to the end of September, an increase of 23 per cent on the figure of £8.7m recorded for the same period last year. Revenues rose 16 per cent to £42.1m, and Iomart said it was committed to pursuing further acquisitions, having paid £3.8m for Gloucestershire-based data storage and back-up outfit Cristie in August.